Integration densities and clock speeds of semiconductor circuits are generally increasing. To facilitate the increase in density and clock speed, device sizes, line widths, and/or operating voltages may be reduced. Reductions in line widths and/or operating voltages may vary between integrated circuits based on the application and/or product in which the integrated circuit is used. Generally, new manufacturing processes that may achieve finer line widths and lower operating voltages for a circuit have been developed first for central processing units (CPUs) for a computer and related chip sets. Manufacturing technology that may achieve finer line widths and lower operating voltages for semiconductor memory devices has generally developed more slowly than that for CPUs. As a result, a computer system may comprise a CPU and related circuitry that operate at a different voltage than a memory device. The difference in operating voltages between a CPU and a memory device may be a source of problems in a computer system.
Input/output operations in a general-purpose computer system may be performed by transmitting data between a memory and a memory. It is generally preferable to use a uniform operating voltage for both the memory and the memory controller to improve performance of the system. Typically, however, the memory controller operates using a lower supply voltage than the memory. Unfortunately, additional costs may be incurred in the manufacturing process to lower the operating voltage of the memory to that used by the memory controller.